California Chrome still not getting any respect

Exercise rider Willie Delgado gallops California Chrome on a second lap during a workout at Belmont Park, Wednesday, June 4, 2014, in Elmont, N.Y. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner will attempt to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978 when he races in the 146th running of the Belmont Stakes horse race on Saturday. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

If California Chrome wins the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, not only will it cap a rags-to-riches story unequaled in the annals of the Triple Crown but also stamp him as the least appreciated of the horses that have accomplished the incredibly difficult feat.

The past four Triple Crown winners — Affirmed, Seattle Slew, Secretariat and Citation — all received far more respect before the Kentucky Derby than California Chrome. None had the number of critics who have tried to find flaws in Chrome’s game.

Two trainers who will try to beat the Kentucky Derby and Preakness champion on Saturday, Dallas Stewart with Commanding Curve and Dale Romans with Medal Count, were among the skeptics before the Derby.

“Oh yes, I was wrong,” Stewart said. “I mean, we try to all be smart and try to add up their breeding and their, you know, this and that. I don’t know, you can’t like them all. We were just wrong, that’s all it was. The horse is just a runner.”

But even after winning the first two legs of the Triple Crown, there still are disbelievers, naysayers who point to Chrome’s slow Derby-winning time despite the fact his numbers in the Preakness were right up there with Big Brown, Silver Charm and Spectacular Bid.

They forget the fact the colt ran the second-fastest Santa Anita Derby in history by eclipsing the efforts of Kentucky Derby winners Affirmed, Winning Colors and Sunday Silence. They conveniently set aside this telling stat — Chrome was the first horse since 1906 to go into the Derby off four consecutive victories by five lengths or more. He’s now won six consecutive by a combined 27 1/2 lengths.

Yes, his breeding makes the Kentucky blue bloods turn up their noses. A California-bred sired by Lucky Pulpit out of the mare Love the Chase? That $10,000 mating is not what Kentuckians have in mind when they talk about being royally bred.

But as co-owner Steve Coburn has pointed out many times, California Chrome doesn’t know he was born in California. If he wins the Belmont, he’ll become the first Cal-bred to win the Triple Crown, and the $6 million Coburn and Perry Martin turned down in March for 51 percent of the colt may end up looking like pennies on the dollar.

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What racing fans must come to grips with is we may never see a story like this again in our lifetime. Not with a horse that is on the verge of history. Consider:

• Coburn and Martin named their partnership DAP Racing, which stands for “Dumb Ass Partners,” after a passer-by questioned their wisdom in purchasing California Chrome’s dam. Their silks feature a picture of a donkey.

• Not only is Chrome modestly bred, he’s the first horse Coburn and Martin have led to the track. Talk about hitting a million-dollar Pick Six with a $2 ticket.

• The story has it when Coburn and Martin showed up at Harris Farms to set up Chrome’s breeding, they wanted a different sire for their mare. Told the stallion wasn’t available, they asked, “Well, who is available?” Lucky Pulpit, that’s who.

• Shortly after Chrome was foaled, Martin handed trainer Art Sherman a piece of paper that included a map on how to get to the Derby.

• Coburn not only guaranteed a Derby victory days before the race, but he said Chrome would win the Triple Crown.

We’re not making this stuff up, folks.

Of Martin’s map to Churchill Downs, Sherman said: “I looked at it and said, ‘Wow, they have big dreams,’ you know what I mean? I said to myself, ‘I wish they could come true,’ and sure enough four of the races he had on the road to the Derby he’s already won. So I said to myself, ‘Maybe they’ve got something going for him.’ I have no idea.”

It says here that Victor Espinoza, who’s been as cool as a cucumber through this whole process, will take California Chrome gate to wire Saturday to become thoroughbred racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner. If Tonalist or Samraat try to run early with Chrome, they’ll be cooked in the stretch.

What say you, Mr. Sherman?

“Something could happen, you know, we all know being in the races,” he said. “But I feel good about this race coming up. He’s coming into it perfect and I think the people that are running against him got to worry about him, not me worry about any of the other horses.”